There are things the Sharks must do in order to change what has been
happening on the ice, and they know that. A team meeting after Tuesday's
loss addressed some things the team would not reveal.

There are also obvious adjustments to be made: Getting more traffic and
more elevation on shots is a no-brainer, but it is more
easily said than done. Sharks defencemen have struggled to get pucks
through what traffic the Sharks have had, so can they figure out a way
to do that without blocking their own shots?

For one thing, the team needs to work on more tip-plays. You can adjust
the angle of shots to get them around defenders by faking shots to
change angles, and by shooting wide, not just off the boards but to
forwards at lateral edges of the crease. They can also take quicker
shots instead of winding up for the big slap shot--getting a light shot
through is better than getting a heavy shot blocked.

Another problem the team was willing to talk about was turnovers.
Captain Rob Blake talked about that--"our execution
and poise with the puck can be
better. We're not playing as crisp as we were. They've been able
to knock down pucks."

Obviously, Chicago's forechecking is giving the Sharks
troubles, but the giveaways can still be reduced with more
careful advancing of the puck and using more skating--something both
Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Dan Boyle can do.

The team also has to have more
discipline to dump pucks in to avoid neutral zone turnovers, which will
be easier to do if they can work with a lead more often. This also
plays to the Sharks superior size and away from the Hawks superior
speed.

Douglas Murray addressed this as one of the things the team was doing
better in the first two rounds: "If you looked at a
lot of our games, we were really
good in the third period because we've worn them down," Murray said.
In this series, the Sharks have delivered just one more hit than the
Blackhawks and been out-scored in the third period, 3-2.

Finally, there is one other change the Sharks could make once they trail
in a game:

Niemi has kicked out a lot of rebounds, but directed him where Sharks
are not. By taking a chance and pinching down a fourth player more
often, the Sharks may get to a lot of those rebounds and be able to put
them home before Niemi can re-set himself.

Of course, that risks more odd-man rushes the other way, a dangerous
prospect indeed with the offensive talent of the Hawks. But not as much
of a risk as continuing to trail into a third period or falling down 3-0
in the series.

Changes should not be limited to strategic, however; for personnel change suggestions, see here.